"We will be there all right," he said. "Engleton will only be too
glad to be where Jeanne is. I suppose young De la Borne is the same
way."

The Princess sighed.

"Every one," she remarked, "is so shockingly mercenary!"




CHAPTER II


The Princess helped herself to a salted almond and took her first
sip of champagne. The almonds were crisp and the champagne dry. She
was wearing a new and most successful dinner-gown of black velvet,
and she was quite sure that in the subdued light no one could tell
that the pearls in the collar around her neck were imitation. Her
afternoon's indisposition was quite forgotten. She nodded at her
host approvingly.

"Cecil," she said, "it is really very good of you to take in my two
friends like this. Major Forrest has just arrived from Ostend, and I
was very anxious to hear about the people I know there, and the
frocks, and all the rest of it. Lord Ronald always amuses me, too. I
suppose most people would call him foolish, but to me he only seems
very, very young."